1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to electrical computers and, more particularly, to multi-computer data transfer for conferencing and for synchronizing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Bandwidth is a problem when conferencing. Video and/or desktop conferencing, such as training sessions and other distributed presentations, often requires real-time streaming of the presentation materials. If the remote participants are few in number, and/or if the presentation materials are small in size, real-time data streaming may provide an adequate quality of presentation. If, however, there are many remote participants, real-time streaming poses several problems. As the number of remote participants increases, the required bandwidth also increases. Fifty (50) remote participants, for example, could require fifty (50) real-time data streams fanning out from the host computer to each remote participant. As the number of remote participants increases, the host computer is also taxed to manage communications with all the remote participating computers. All the participants to the conference, then, eventually suffer from network congestion and from degradation in processor performance. The quality of the conference is reduced, and all the participants to the conference have a less-than-desired experience. There is, accordingly, a need in the art for methods, systems, and products for improved conferencing among remote participants. There is also a need for reducing the bandwidth required when conferencing that does not rely upon real-time streaming.